The Shattering of Glass

THE SHATTERING OF GLASS

Sometimes it shatters cleanly
along a jagged line
If you are careful,
avoid cutting yourself on the broken edge,
some pieces can be salvaged,
used again
Not all is lost

Sometimes it shatters surprisingly
An unseen starcrack,
a little tension,
the weak point accentuates,
the crack spreads
Finally it breaks
Safest to smash it first,
write off as a regrettable-only loss

But if carelessly you forget
first to anneal it,
the excited state is dangerously vulnerable
to a shattering
at the merest provocation
into many pieces
that fly and cut and hurt,
so that after the impolosion
wounds take a long time to heal
You might never fully recover

All dreams shatter sometime

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 14th April 1973

Publications

1987 The Old Police Station (UK)
1993 Dream International Quarterly (USA)

Dreams

DREAMS

There are no dreams in the deepest sleep
for deepest sleep is purest rest
and I need rest most of all from my dreams
which are always of the restless kind
My dreams are dreamt when only half asleep
the hypnotic state of the physiological psychologists
when the electroencephalograph traces a jagged line
the jumbled signals of multitudinous nerves
recalling images past-remembered
but long forgotten
Half-remembered names of half-remembered faces
flash across my dreaming eyes
ideas and false linkages
possible predictions for the future

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 1st March 1967

Publications

1972 Datr (UK)
1992 STEALING KISSES (Hyde, New Hope International)
1993 Apostrophe (UK)
1993 Dream International Quarterly (USA)
1997 Temporary Sanity (Internet)
1999 Unlikely Stories (Internet)